


Unexpected Quarters

by Anonymous



Category: Supernatural
Genre: BAMF Castiel (Supernatural), Caretaking, Castiel in danger, Family Feels, Gen, Hurt Castiel (Supernatural), Rescue, Restrained Castiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 10:30:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19972597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Castiel finds out the hard way what happened to some missing people near a small town.Hurt, trapped, he needs help to escape, and that help does arrive...just not how he imagined.





	Unexpected Quarters

When Cas woke up, it took him a moment to get his bearings.

His Grace stirred, sluggishly, but it didn’t help him remember what had happened, or where he was, and it did little to soothe or block the pain that immediately assaulted him.

Breathing hard, he blinked a few times to clear his vision, and took a slow look around him.

He was in some kind of room; wooden floors, wooden walls, ceiling covered in shadow.

There were a few crates here and there, but most of the room was curtained in white swathes, and he didn’t understand at first quite what he was seeing.

The pain made it hard to focus, and he suspected there was something wrong with his body.

When he tried to move, and found he couldn’t, Cas looked up to find the same material covering much of the room was also partially wrapped around him.

His arms were stretched above his head, a thick cuff formed of the material twisted tightly around his wrists.

More of it entwined his lower legs, making sure he stayed upright, but helpless.

And the strange fibres, whatever they were, stung where they touched his bare skin.

The material was organic, he could tell that, but certainly not fashioned by human hands.

When he heard a faint scuttle from somewhere in the depths of the room, sensed a presence, Cas twisted around as much as he could, trying to track the noise.

He didn’t have to, because it came closer, above him, and he squinted into the darkness. With his Grace in tatters, and in his current predicament, his vision couldn’t pierce the shadows as it would have normally.

But after a moment, it didn’t matter; the largest spider he’d ever seen slowly descended, climbing easily down one of the large stretches of web - the whole room was a giant spider web….

And he was trapped in it.

The creature stopped at the bottom, and stared at him. There was hunger there; Cas could feel it, potent, and frightening.

He froze, desperate to be free, but unsure if moving would draw the spider closer.

Was he here alone? Were Dean and Sam nearby, close enough to help him?

Cas wished he could risk crying out, but since whatever had happened to him had stolen away his recent memories, he didn’t want to take the chance.

The spider sat there, just watching him, as if waiting for something.

++

Ketch was sweating hard by the time he got out of the SUV.

The padded body armour suit he wore, necessary for this encounter, left little room for the skin to breathe, and he was sweating and itchy and generally uncomfortable as he opened the trunk and took out a long spike tipped spear.

All this for a halo, but Dean had been quite clear; if he didn’t successfully rescue Castiel, and return him home alive and unharmed, there would be nowhere on either side of the Atlantic he could hide (and since he was meant to have helped the halo with this hunt, but been delayed bt business of his own, he was being squarely blamed for the situation).

Given Dean’s phobia for air travel, Ketch doubted the hunter would pursue him ‘home’ if it came to it, but given his feelings for the celestial, the Brit was also sure Dean would overcome his fears to avenge his pet.

Or simply endure a long trip by sea to reach English shores.

Even if his continued wellbeing and survival wasn’t intertwined with the angel’s, Ketch knew he was very much dependent on the Winchesters’ good will.

With hunters, demons, and a few of his former associates from across the pond now boots down on American soil all possessing motivation to murder him, he couldn’t afford to be without allies, and the old Lebanon bunker - while not impregnable - was a good bolt hole to have.

If he wanted to get back in to it, he needed to have a certain angel in tow.

And that meant rescuing him from the situation he’d found himself in.

++

As he hung there, Cas’s memory started to come back. 

Of people disappearing every few weeks in the nearby small town.

Of the local police department seemingly unconcerned, because one of the people had a history of cheque kiting, another had financial problems, a third had split up with both his wife and his mistress (who turned out to be his wife’s sister) and therefore had good reason to fear for his life if he remained.

But they hadn’t all left town as the police believed; Cas was certain at least some of them had ended up where he was now, trapped in a web as a giant spider waited for its venom to take full effect and break down their bodies, but he was determined not to share their fate.

Of course, hunting alone, even for an angel, wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but he remembered now that he wasn’t meant to be alone, and that Arthur Ketch had been supposed to rendezvous with him.

The Brit hadn’t turned up, and Cas hadn’t been prepared to wait for someone else to be taken and fed, which was how he came to be where he was.

Incapacitated, the puncture marks in his abdomen still leaking blood and pus which had stained his shirt and was now dribbling down his front.

He needed out of the web, and rest, to help his flagging Grace deal with the injury, but those were aims unlikely to be accomplished without help.

And Dean and Sam were miles from here; by now he was sure he’d missed his check in, but there was no way his humans would arrive in time to kill the spider that had captured him.

When it tensed, suddenly, Cas did too, and expected it to suddenly lunge at him.

Instead, it scuttled around, facing away from the angel, and only then Cas notice a door hidden in the shadows push open.

Ketch stepped through, dressed in what looked like a padded body suit, and he had a long spear like weapon in his hands.

“Best not to move, angel, unless I tell you,” he said, sternly, and Cas wanted to roll his eyes.

If not for the webbing holding him prisoner, he would likely be face down on the floor.

He considered demanding to know where the Brit had been, but Ketch had an intent look on his face as he approached the giant spider, and the last thing Cas wanted to do was distract him (or provoke Ketch to leave him to his fate; he hated the former Man of Letters, but a rescue was a rescue).

As he watched, Ketch feinted at the spider with the spear; the end, a spike rather than the more traditional shaped metal blade, was at least a foot in length which Cas presumed was to allow maximum damage but keep the wielder out of range.

The spider made a low hissing sound and darted back just enough to avoid being jabbed, but Ketch quickly stabbed downward, catching the spider just behind its head.

He was struggling, though; the spider was jerking back and forth, threatening to yank the spear out of Ketch’s hands, and he wasn’t strong enough by himself to push the weapon deep enough to kill.

Cas knew it was risky, but if Ketch wasn’t able to finish off the spider, he’d simply up end trapped in its web as well, and they’d both be cocooned and eaten.

His Grace was weak and stretched thin, trying to close up the wound to his body, and redirecting it hurt, but Cas forced his power outward, towards Ketch, and used it to push the spear.

The weapon was torn from the human’s hands, and Cas shoved it down so hard that it went straight through the spider and at least a foot into the floor.

The spider twisted and writhed but finally collapsed to the ground and went still.

Cas panted heavily, and pulled his energy back, but it was limp and unresponsive when he tried to nudge it back to his injury.

Ketch was staring at the spider in open astonishment, and then glanced at the captive angel.

“Well,” he said. “I came here to rescue, not _be_ rescued; though I suppose if you hadn’t been foolish enough…. Castiel?”

Cas could feel consciousness leaving him; his body felt heavy, an odd numbness spreading through it.

Maybe his Grace had been keeping the worst effects of the spider venom at bay, and how it was burning through him.

“Castiel!”

The last thing he saw was Ketch running towards him.

++

Returning a half dead angel to the Winchesters, to Dean, would see him head shot, Ketch knew, so after cutting Castiel from the thick webbing that held him prisoner, he carried the angel to the SUV and then drove until he found a motel.

The manager barely looked at him as he took payment for the room and handed over the keys; Ketch was confident he could have been stark naked, and told the man he needed an extra bed for an orgy, and received not even a note of interest.

That suited him fine; it was late, the other rooms were dark, and that all meant no one observed him carrying an unconscious male over his shoulder and into a room.

He went back for his first aid kit, a well equipped resource for all possible eventualities (the Letters might have had significant resources in their bases, but in the field their agents were expected to fend for themselves).

Then he returned to where the halo lay unmoving on the bed, and cut him out of his shirt.

The spider wound was red and raw, green crusted around the edges, and leaking a foul smelling green pus.

Ketch pulled on a pair of gloves, and felt his way carefully around the wound; he supposed he had reason other than retaining the Winchesters’ good will to assist the angel, now.

If the spider had bitten him, he’d probably be dead already; even with weakened Grace, it said a lot that a spider bite (even if that spider was half the size of a car) had reduced Castiel to this.

Watching carefully for any signs of consciousness returning, Ketch cleaned around the wound, and then used a saline bag to flush the puncture holes out.

Poison flowed in stinking clumps, and Ketch used a towel to wipe them away, until the wounds ran clean. Then he cleaned Castiel up again, and put a wide dressing over the site before bandaging it in place.

All that was left now was getting him home, and the sooner they started for Lebanon, the better.

++

The next time Cas woke up, his head was slumped against a window, his body ached, and he could feel a car moving beneath him.

He groaned, and started to move, but a hand grabbed his shoulder and held him firmly.

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” a familiar voice said. “Your wound should be closing by now; if you open it, I’m not pulling in again to change the dressing.”

Cas didn’t have the energy to glare at Ketch, but he did look down at the dressing taped across his stomach.

He was shirtless, but Ketch had at least put him back in his coat, and tugged the sides mostly closed.

The dressing was stained with blood, but no infection that Cas could see, or sense, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Until he remembered he was still hurt, weak, and helpless in Ketch’s vehicle, with no idea where they were going.

The human must have realised what Cas was thinking because he smirked.

“Oh, while there are many things I’d love to do with you, halo, not one is worth provoking the wrath of your hunters. We’re heading back to the bunker; in fact...yes, there we are.”

Cas had never been so relieved to see that familiar sloping drive or the familiar red doors.

By the time the SUV pulled into the garage, Dean and Sam were already waiting at the top of the stairs, and Cas’s door was yanked open even before the vehicle had fully stopped.

Two sets of hands were quickly on him, undoing the seat belt, checking him over, and carefully extricating him from the car.

Dean looked Cas up and down once more, and there was something in his eyes for a fleeting moment which Cas couldn’t quite work out, before the hunter turned to look at Ketch.

“Okay,” he said, and nodded at the other man, before he and Sam each took one of Cas’s arms and guided him down the stairs.

He was home. Hurt, but now safe, and with his family.

And that was enough.


End file.
